Lectures

Yesterday we had a class test. The tutor surprisingly managed to get them all marked by this morning and sent out an email to everyone explaining that he's not very happy. Basically the average in the class was 0%. I scored 5%...

The questions were very mathematical. My friend is a lot more mathematical than me and he got 60%, proof that those less mathematical struggled. Thing is, we're not even studying Maths. I'm studying towards an IT degree! The test tested my ability to do some calculations, rather than test my knowledge of IT.

Plus with such a low average of the class (there is about 82 of us in the lecture class) it's evident that something's going wrong.

Here's what I think is going wrong:

• There's only lectures, no kind of practical or learning in smaller groups
• The lectures are too long, we're only human and attention spans do not last long, especially when you know you are being lectured about a rather boring topic
• The actual presentation of the lecture is not very stimulating. The lecture slides aren't exciting, sometimes too brief or too detailed, and the lecturer stands in a confined space with one tone of voice

I'm not sure about other lectures, but nowadays I think they're becoming too reliant on 'Powerpoint presentations'. The whole lecture has become based around the 'slides' that you could get without attending. What you attend lectures for is to see the lecturer talk about the topic at hand and give us his/her insight into it.

Funny thing is, we're paying well over £3000 for this. We're like the customers, they should be providing us a service. And we're expected to pay more in the coming years?

I'm not saying Lancaster University isn't good, because it's actually a great place and institution. The department has just merged with the Computer Science department so I can't judge, but i'm sure they mean well. The course is also great, but at times can be dry and should provide you with more options.

If you're thinking about going to university in the future, by all means do, you may have the time of your life and learn so much academically and about life in general. However, be prepared to do a lot of independent learning and sitting through some boring lectures.